Episode Transcript
Elise: Hello, and welcome to The Loop Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, Elise Stieferman, Director of Marketing at Coegi. Let's get started. All right, so today we are talking about 2023 digital marketing trends and predictions. I'm joined by Sean Cotton, Coegi’s president, as well as Ryan Green, Vice President of Marketing and Innovation.
So I wanna kick us off with talking about if any of your personal viewpoints or approaches to marketing have seen a big change over the course of the last year. Ryan, do you wanna start us off?
Ryan: Yeah. You know, the thing that I think's changed the most is really how important content actually is to media. For several years, we've really talked about campaigns - campaign numbers, IO’s, and target audiences. But, what’s important going into 2023 is the merging of media, audience, and automation with the content and the message. Those are things that have to be thought of together now, and they have to be part of the media buy.
Leaning into publisher relationships and leaning into influencer relationships - sometimes as the creative agency in some ways, right? I think this happened during the pandemic where it was hard to go to production to build an old school campaign. But, you were able to create content. You were able to write. You were able to leverage influencers. And the media agencies started to do a lot more of the work there. So I think that's something that's really changed my viewpoint this year as we start to answer the call to our clients in that respect.
Elise: And I know you were just talking earlier today about how the world of marketing is changing very rapidly. I feel like with content in particular, the shelf life has shortened quite a bit, and so the set it and forget it approach doesn't really function as well.
Sean, what about you? Any changes to your personal viewpoints over the last year for marketing?
Sean: Yeah, as I was listening to Ryan, my thoughts are closely related to his in that, leading up to the beginning of last year, there was still a lot of effective things that could be done in digital marketing around audience. And there still is, but that signal is becoming weaker and weaker as people opt into browsers that don't support cookies and with privacy laws and regulations. As a matter of fact, there was something today with the European Union and Meta that poses some challenges there.
In 2022 we saw the impact of our audience targeting capabilities lessen a little bit - which we expected. So in 2023, we need to continue to lean into research and into content as Ryan was discussing, and engage in tactics such as influencer, to make sure we're really engaging our best customers throughout their journey and not relying on the easy button.
Elise: Right, I feel like that links so perfectly with what you said, Ryan, in the sense that because the audience signal is weaker, the content has to work even harder to stop the scroll, and the personalization is going to change quite a bit.
Ryan: And I think what content is, has changed too. We've seen success with shorter content. We've also seen success with long form content as well. It’s not just the trope that the modern consumer has a three-second attention span. That may be true because that's their attention span on TikTok. But that's not true when people are watching 30 minute videos on YouTube or reading 10,000 word articles on a client's website when they are in that middle funnel education phase.
So content is a broad word, and it probably means more than creative does. Now, a creative campaign can be part of what content is, but it's not the only thing. And I think the modern marketing campaign needs to take a broader lens on what content is, where it plays in the consumer journey, and how we amplify that content to the right audience using the automated tools we have at our discretion to make that perfect mix and ultimately get to the business goals we're looking to achieve.
Elise: So I think that's a good segue to talk about some of the predictions you had at the start of this year. Sean, you predicted that there would be more emphasis on short-form video on social in particular, and that the creator's universe is going to become even more important across multiple different platforms. So how did that play out in 2022?
Sean: Well, we certainly saw the growth in short form video production and distribution with the growth of TikTok, YouTube Shorts and so forth. But, I don't think brands have quite caught up yet with how to capitalize on short-form video and telling their story. That content needs to be tailored for each platforms differently.
So as opposed to the ad campaigns Ryan was talking about earlier, where we had set creatives, set media plan and tactics and channel strategy, and we say - this is what we're going to market with, the environment in social with short-form video requires us to be much more nimble and agile. Sometimes, to be less focused on quality and more on authenticity. And so it has changed the game in terms of content production. So I think part of that prediction is that, yes, as users, we are engaging more with short-form content in terms of marketing, but brands and agencies are still trying to catch up as to how to capitalize on that and engage consumers to their full potential.
Elise: And then, Ryan, you made a prediction that the metaverse and augmented reality and virtual reality were going to be driving factors in brand’s marketing plans. So from your perception, how has that played out throughout 2022?
Ryan: It hasn't, not nearly to the effect that it could. At least not for most marketers, it has for gaming, it has in fashion. But I don't think anybody could have predicted some of the struggles Meta had, if those wouldn't have came to fruition. Maybe we are a little bit further along with some of the more Web3.0 things that I'm still bullish on long-term, that didn't come through this year. If I could revise my 2022 prediction, I would've leaned in more to retail media, which certainly has came on as a driving force, as the signal loss that Sean was talking about, starts to happen in the open web and in open exchange. There's been a strengthening of signal from retailers from their point of sale and their media networks that savvy advertisers are really able to lean into and need to be a major part of lower funnel plans that CPG brands and a variety of industries need to be looking at.
Elise: And then you both predicted that the availability of consumer data was going to be more of a force in terms of ad quality and how we measure marketing. I'd like to hear where you think that is going to be heading as we enter 2023.
Sean: You know, we spoke a lot about incrementality over attribution at the beginning of last year. And I was really surprised at how quickly that approach gained popularity over the course of the year. A lot of other marketers were thinking the same way. The beauty of digital has always been that we could tie together touchpoints and show some sort of attribution or return on investment. And I expected that it would take a little bit longer for people to shift to - okay, maybe we need to go about this a little bit differently. Even going back to the way we used to measure with an advanced form of media mixed modeling and incrementality.
So, I think that prediction really came to fruition right before our eyes in 2023. And I think moving forward, to answer your question, that we'll see savvy marketers become even more skilled at that, right? Because there's not a lot of doubt about whether that's the right approach now among leading digital marketers. Really, at this point, it's just about perfecting that approach and making it more meaningful when we deliver those reports or that analysis of our marketing campaigns.
Ryan: Yeah. I've been pleasantly surprised that even with cookie deprecation delays, brands and advertisers didn't fall back on click-based attribution. They did still continue to put their money where their mouth was and lean into incrementality, even when they had an excuse to kick the can down. I think that also goes into reliance on audience targeting as well. It's not just the browsers and the cookie deprecation, it was also legal and regulation that's coming. Sean mentioned news that came out from the EU on Meta today that potentially is going to nullify personal ad targeting - period . If that does become law there, that's going to have a trickle down effect on several other areas of the globe as well. So, it's good that brands are not using this delay as an excuse and are moving forward with what modern marketing is going to look like.
Elise: So then would you say that regulation is a top challenge that brands should be looking to tackle going into 2023? Or how should they be looking at the changes in the privacy landscape?
Ryan: It depends where they're transacting, right? They definitely need to to be on more alert if they're operating in the European Union. The United States is still TBD - we have stronger regulation coming out of California, obviously, both from CCPA and child protection. So there's several different angles of it, but we have an idea of what's going to shape and it's actually an opportunity for brands to take the moral high ground and put a stake in the ground about what their values are as it pertains to data collection and regulation. They don't have to wait to be told what to do. They can make the decision themselves and, obviously in conjunction with their agency partners, to continue to have great performance of their campaigns, while still being able to have a clear definition of what's gonna be safe for that brand in regards to data collection.
Sean: And I think we've really kind of moved past the point where we should just be thinking about it. You know, at this point we should be implementing some vetted best practices around data collection, data storage, and security on top of our marketing campaign. So if an advertiser was to find themself in a place where they had all this first-party data and they're like, we really need to come up with a strategy about how we're going to use it, I would suggest that they reach out to a professional as soon as possible to help them with that.
Elise: So I'd like to hear each of your hard-hitting takes on trends that marketers should retire in 2022?
Ryan: Well, this probably should have been done a couple of years ago, but the reliance on Facebook as an easy button and as your primary social platform. That needs to go. Not only has the world diversified in where our consumer’s eyeballs are, but there's well-noted privacy regulations that Meta is really the center of in a lot of ways. You know, their stock went down 80% over the past 10 months for a reason - that's unprecedented. And if that's not a signal to advertisers that maybe that's not the one place you want to bet on, that definitely should be it.
Advertisers should have been diversifying their social and digital media spend for a long time. iOS 14.5, should have been a wake-up call to brands that were looking at last click attribution, seeing how much shift there was and what the platform reported versus what their backend sales were showing, to say - Hey, I'm very familiar with this platform, but this is not representative of the business results we're looking for.
There's not going to be an easy button. It's going to be challenging to create content that plays well on a half a dozen different social platforms and on dozens of different screens now. This is the time when advertisers that do the hard work are gonna be rewarded, and the ones that want to make it easy and simple are going to be downstream.
Elise: What about you, Sean?
Sean: If I had to pick one thing, I’d point to viewing CTV and OTT video as simply as a incremental video strategy. Historically, as it's been an emerging channel, it has been viewed like - well, we're going to put our budget here in linear as far as being on the big screen, and we're going to carve off maybe 5% of our budget for CTV/OTT as an incremental part of the buy. And there's still a lot of marketers that approach it that way. Whereas if we do the analysis of reach and frequency of a CTV and OTT buy versus a linear buy, when we buy the right way, we can attain a greater extent of reach and a more manageable frequency.
Whereas with linear, we get this high frequency oftentimes to a very small pool of linear TV watchers. And, all the data shows people are cutting the cord. So thinking of CTV and OTT as an incremental tactic within our large screen video buy is really going against the data. It should be an central part of advertising on the big screen, because it's so measurable and targetable to attain the appropriate reach and frequency goals. Now, linear TV still has its place without a doubt, but they need to be looked at in tandem
Ryan: And in fairness to many marketers that had those separated, the measurement was separated as well. Now you're seeing the Nielsens of the world coming together and saying, we're gonna look at CTV and linear in the same language. We're gonna transact on CPMs and not on GRPs. That's a big step towards a more apples to apples comparison. When there's two different measurements, they end up naturally going to different places. There's less excuse now, with measurement partners that are able to translate both - not just Nielsen, but several others that are a pioneering measurement for TV. And you need to lean into that to be effective in 2023.
Elise: What are some other big trends in digital and programmatic marketing for 2023?
Ryan: One of the big things we're going to look at in 2023 is the emergence of retail media as a primary vehicle for digital marketing campaigns. I think retail media only emerged in the past two or three years with any real emphasis. It was something that was experimental or trial. But now it's something that could be the backbone of a well-done CPG marketing campaign. Social may be secondary or tertiary to and that kind of really flips things on its head. So for certain industries, retail media being the lead and getting the lion share of budget is something I wouldn't even imagined 12 months ago.
Sean: I would say one trend would be a redefining of what performance marketing and media is, especially as we go into what seems to be a recession. Whether that happens or not, every dollar matters, even more so as time goes by with advertisers. And so all media needs to deliver some type of performance. Now, typically, when you say performance media or performance marketing, people would think of search or lower funnel tactics where you can see a direct conversion for every dollar spent.
But the fact is - every marketing dollar needs to perform. There’s pressure on CMOs and CEOs, to show return on all of their marketing investment. So, marketers are challenged for all media to perform Now, you're going to measure awareness differently than consideration or intent, but there needs to be some sort of accountability. So I think, a trend that we’ll continue to see as marketers embrace incrementality and some of these other things we've been discussing, is looking at performance marketing with a wider lens.
Ryan: I agree with that. And you know, one other thing that's come up this year that I haven't heard in years past is a high importance with sustainability and the effect that digital marketing can have on our carbon footprint. We are really starting to dive into supply path optimization, starting to think about having fewer touchpoints from the ad server to the consumer to be able to really streamline our use of energy and use of computers. I think that's something we're really going to see a lot of brands start to demand across every third-party partner - whether it's in marketing or not. And there's some low-hanging fruit and concrete things we're able to do as an industry, in tandem with our technology partners to demand greater accountability to the carbon footprint of our campaigns.
Elise: To wrap us up, I want to talk about the future of paid social media and influencer marketing. I know that we've talked quite a bit about Meta’s decline, but are there other 2023 social media trend predictions marketers should be looking out for?
Ryan: There's has never been a time since we started Coegi that there's been so much headwind with social. Social has always been seen as a growth channel, in every aspect - the number of consumers that are on social and the amazing reach. But, you have headline after headline coming in - from Meta's demise to Twitter now having 70% less staff. We're having challenges getting anybody's attention there for basic campaign needs. And TikTok is not going to run in the way that it is forever, with government regulation coming against China there.
Even in the influencer space, I think you're starting to see Gen Z and Gen Alpha, which is starting to get cell phones, rebelling against this perfect lifestyle that the typical influencer showcases. You're seeing less and less time being given to those platforms to the point where there's a lot of headwinds on social media.
So, a lot of those platforms have made it very easy to have great reach, and in some ways this actually may be an opportunity to do more on social. The billions of logins Facebook has are not suddenly going away. And there's plenty of people that still use these platforms. There needs to be balance in your social strategy next to every other screen you're able to target - next to linear and traditional media as well.
Balance is going to be a calling card for 2023. The brands who follow the DTC playbook that really goes heavy into search and social first are going to be at a disadvantage if they don't think about all the places it takes to garner attention. Attention is still the number one commodity we're looking to harness as marketers. And we're going to have to be a lot more creative, both in the way that we message audiences and the placement of those ads, to garner the attention needed to be competitive.
Elise: Well, thank you both for being here today and I’m excited to see how these digital marketing trends play out in 2023.
